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Sushi Topia Now Open

By Salem ManThe conveyor belt sushi restaurant next to La Capitale is open for business. I went in there yesterday and got a quick bite to eat. The sushi runs along a mettalic belt down the center of the restaurant with tables on one side and stools on the other. Each of the plates is color coded so that you know how much it will cost you at the end of the meal. It's the same system they have at Sushi Kyo. On the wall near the kitchen is a plasma screen TV playing Japanese programming. Looks like this place will be able to seat about 30-40 people at once. It's a great location having a popular French restaurant on one side and the Pita Pit on the other. It won't take long before the word gets out about this place. At the time of this post, it's been open for a week. Sorry for the awful cell phone shot.

Finally made it today for lunch to Sushi Topia. Well, there are probably bumps in the road for all new restaurants but I found that there were a couple bigger “issues” that should not happen at all.

First of all I was glad to hear about a new sushi place closer to my workplace. The restaurant was almost full. Here are the pros and cons for me today:

Cons:- Don’t like the stools. They are way too uncomfortable, especially when you are not exactly skinny. - The plain blue plates seem to be the blue/golden plates just painted over. You can see it on the edges because some paint has already come off, probably in the dish washer. Since it’s a newly opened restaurant, I’m not so sure how they are going to look in a few months. Ultimately to me that plate doesn’t look very appealing. - Plating is not always super clean. I noticed some plates did not have the edges wiped off to remove drippings or what. - Tally sheets that you get from the waiter and which you take to the register are apparently printed wrong. The two most expensive plates apparently have the prices reversed/flipped on the tally sheet. The waitress did explain, but it’s still confusing. Since they looked like copies anyway and nothing from an expensive printer, I think it would be a good (probably low cost) suggestion to fix that error and get new ones. - I got accidentally overcharged by a little over 3 dollars. No big deal, can happen anywhere, and the mistake was quickly fixed and apologized for. But it’s just an unlucky circumstance you usually don’t want to happen on your first visit, since that doesn't really contribute to a positive opinion about the place overall.- Would have loved a “menu” with visuals (photos) to identify which is what and what’s the ingredient. There could be one or two more "price plates" on the wall, depending on where you sit. - Didn’t really like the fact that you got a little wasabi and ginger from the wait staff. I prefer to prepare my own condiment dish.- Well, all the previous items are somewhat minor, but this one is a biggy: A lot of plates did not have covers!!! With so many different people sitting right in front of the food and the swine flue going around and regular flu season coming up, I would prefer to have EVERYTHING covered. - Another big one is the tea: What in the world did they brew there? It tasted very woody. I’m not a big tea drinker and when I do it’s usually at a sushi place. But that one was horrible. - The higher end plate prices are pretty stiff.

Pros:- Loved the tempura shrimp roll (if that was the name). It was a larger diameter roll and very tasty. Didn’t have a lid though, but since it just came out of the kitchen, I took my chances. - Restaurant and kitchen seemed clean from what I could see. - Staff was very friendly and helpful. - Loved that fact that certain items are made to order, like egg rolls are fried when you order, so you get them when they are hot and not soggy from being on the conveyor forever. - Loved the fact that they offer mochi ice cream.

In a nutshell: I will probably wait for quite a while until I’ll go back in hopes that some items will be improved in the future. It has a lot of potential and could easily take a lot of customers from other sushi restaurants in town with these improvements made.

But for now, I will probably rather drive the additional mile to Sushi Kyo.

Just went for lunch today with my 4 year old... She loves conveyor belt sushi. Its the best way to have kids enjoy the experience. The sushi was great. There weren't too many people eating when we were there. So, I like the fact that they didn't pack the belt full of plates insuring that it was all fresh. But on the downside I didn't notice too many Nigiri options. If I worked downtown I would eat there everyday.. What a tasty, inexpensive,fast, healthy, lunch!

I was eagerly anticipating the opening of this new sushi place, but I've been sorely dissapointed by the food. I've been there twice but don't think I'll be going back: There weren't a lot of choices, everything was lukewarm, the seaweed was chewy, custom orders took a long time, and the staff was unprofessional. Sushi Kyo should open a downtown location!!

Since when is sushi Deep fat fried beer battered shrimp and salem rolls? I thought sushi was Nigiri, IE Raw fish. Properly prepared this is probably one of the healthiest and most incredible tasting foods on the planet. I love Sushi Kyo and Najimi as well. I wish that people who say they eat sushi would just stay home and eat a frozen Gorten's fish

Went this weekend with a friend of mine to try it out for first time. We thought it was fantastic. They weren't busy so not much on the conveyor but no matter I prefer to order fresh anyways. Everything we tried was great and staff was very friendly. Will be eating there alot.

hello. i am a frequenter of Sushi Topia. So i would like to clear up some of the complaints that people have. Sushi topia is amazing. the reason they dont cover ALL the food is because some of it is hot food so the covers would get foggy and steamed up. but the rest is covered. and they are closed only one day per week. that is sunday. ONLY ONE day. the owner need a break. he works so hard. they dont want to put too much out on the belt because they want it to be fresh. but as soon as someone places an order they make it and put that out on the belt as well. when there is more people then there is more food. but of course if you go near closing time there wont be a lot of stuff on the belt. common sense. and they do have menus with pictures. sushi topia did make a lot of changes and now people can prepare their own condiments. the seating is great. its a bar stool setting. the plates are all washed and steamed in a high grade machiene. overall the owner tries to make Sushi Topi a welcoming and inviting place for all sushi lovers. consider why things are the way they are before leaving negative feedback. thank youmaria

i think this place is awesome. people should stop comparing this sushi with sushi kyo because, bust because people manage things differently, doesnt mean that people should be bad mouthing a restaurant.

My girlfriend and I dined at Sushi Topia again and for the last time a couple weeks back after our original destination was closed. They had all plates for somewhere in the dollar range. This sounded great as we took our seats. The downside of this was that they failed to put out much that we wanted to eat. The lone and unhelpful waitress was off doing a lot of nothing while we either wanted to order sushi of our choice or at least get a refill. The teriyaki chicken that they had a hundred signs for everywhere was unavailable as well. How the waitress could give bad service in an almost completely automated place is beyond me, especially since there were never more than 5 diners in there at any given time. Its beyond me why anyone would choose this place over anywhere for sushi. Hell, when Trader Joe's opens I'd even prefer their sushi trays to Sushi Topia, and that's saying something...

I've met the owner of Sushi Topia, Joon, he's a very hard-working and kind individual The food is excellent, the rice they make tastes different than most sushi restaurants, it's delicious. Sushi isn't necessarily JUST raw fish like most people believe, it can also be tempura fried. For the most part, the food is excellent, the customer service for the most part is good, it's always clean now.